


Catnap on the Serpentine Road

by timeforsomethrillingheroics



Category: The New Legends of Monkey (TV)
Genre: F/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-17
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-06-28 15:20:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15709899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timeforsomethrillingheroics/pseuds/timeforsomethrillingheroics
Summary: Over three years after the ending of season one, Monkey, Tripitaka, Sandy and Pigsy are searching for the fourth of the Heavenly Scrolls. They find themselves in an unexpected environment facing a coven of witches, old enchantments and missing friends.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Accidentally watched the Star Trek episode that started the ‘moving two feet away from each other causes physical pain’ trope last night and well. Here you have it folks. My take on a thirty year old theme.
> 
> Title taken from DBZ episode 12 :^)

_True spells, revealing secrets and all powerful,  
Are the only sure way of protecting one's life. _  
― Journey to the West

\- - - 

“Monkey wait,” Tripitaka shouted, holding out a hand frantically, as if the gesture alone would somehow stop her friends swing in mid-air.

If Monkey had looked over he would have noticed Tripitakas face and hands were smeared with rich brown soil. That her palms and knees had been rubbed raw from where she had tripped and fallen in her haste to reach him. That her scalp was sticky with grime and her pants were heavy and dark, their cloth completely saturated with the shallow, murky water that seemed to spread endlessly around them. 

He didn’t though. Tripitaka wasn’t even sure he’d heard her. She hadn’t been fast enough. As she skidded to a stop at the edge of the tree line, Tripitaka knew that it was only thanks to the oddly shaped clearing in the otherwise cluttered cypress forest that she could make him out at all.

If she had more time, Tripitaka might have pressed her fingers together in front of her lips, closed her eyes and began the ritual chant she had learned at Scholars so many years ago. 

As it was, all she could do was watch in horror as Monkeys every changing staff, Nyoi Bo, descended upon the small, glowing circle that encased the fourth scroll. 

The humid air of the swamp that surrounded them seemed to still and then crackle. 

‘Too slow,’ was all Tripitaka had time to think before Monkeys weapon made contact with the tarnished silver loop. 

The metal had been embedded in a small mound of earth that came up just above the water line. In its center was a wooden box Tripitaka could barely see, black with age and worn from the elements. If Tripitaka had been closer she would have noticed the reeds and small water lilies that grew in thick clumps along the water's edge and observed despite the abundance of wildlife that surrounded it, nothing living appeared inside the ring. Just bare earth.

As she watched helplessly from across the empty space she knew her frantic pace had been for nothing. Even if Monkey had tried to stop his forward momentum, he had put too much force behind the blow. There was nothing anyone could have done. 

She heard a sharp clang of metal against metal. Her ears popped and her head felt compressed, as if there had been a sudden change in air pressure. Then ring exploded outward and Monkey was tossed backwards like a rag doll. 

Tripitaka thought she could hear screams rushing along the howling wind that surged from the center of the clearing, but maybe they had been coming through her own throat. She hadn’t been conscious of pressing her palms to her ears or flinging herself to the ground, but suddenly there was brown water over her head so she must have. 

The last thing she remembered was thinking ‘please let him be okay’ before an invisible wall of force hit her and then there was nothing.

**BEFORE**

“What do you mean, you want to go back to camp?” Monkey exclaimed, glaring in frustration at the two gods standing before him. “What’s wrong with you? We’re almost there!”

“Something’s strange in the water,” Sandy said in a subdued voice. “Tastes funny. Makes my skin prickle.” She looked down suspiciously. “I don’t trust it.”

“I don’t notice anything,” Monkey replied haughtily, his fingers drumming against the metal staff planted in the ground at his side. “And no offense, but if anyone is going to spot a yaoguai, it’s me.” 

“Didn’t say it was a demon,” Sandy muttered, sharing a concerned look with Pigsy. “Not all dangerous things are.”

“Come on,” Monkey whined, ignoring their unhappy silence as he snatched up the staff he was holding and shrunk it with a twirl of his fingers. “It took us almost five months to find the stupid thing. You can’t give up now.”

Tripitaka, the only mortal in their small group, rolled her eyes as he deftly twisted the now pin-sized piece of metal into his long hair.

“Well how was I supposed to know that the nice lazy river I told you about was going turn into this,” Monkey testily retorted, gesturing at the vast expanse of swampland spread out before them and wrinkling his nose. “If I had, I would have never put the scroll here in the first place. It’s disgusting.” 

Tripitaka thought the land around them was actually rather beautiful. Not to everyone's taste to be sure, but still with it’s own unique charm. Like the grey moss that seemed to weep down from the branches above their heads, reminding her of the Scholars beard. Or the little silver minnows that darted around her feet if she stood still long enough. ‘Mosquito fish,’ Monkey had disdainfully called them. Well no matter what they were, they were still pretty; flashing like small beads of metal through the murky water. 

Even the rafts of weeds that would occasionally block their path seemed alluring. They consisted of mats of different puffy-leafed plants that floated on the surface of the water. Their wands of purple and white flowers drew hordes of small buzzing insects with iridescent wings. 

The animal life wasn’t what the young woman was used to, but who wouldn’t find the long legged birds enchanting with their glistening blue feathers. Or be interested in the big-eyed dragonflies that swooped low over the water, alighting on reeds or the occasional outstretched finger.

‘Monkey, apparently,’ Tripitaka thought glumly, watching him angrily swat at the small swarm of gnats that buzzed around his ears.

“We can’t even bring the Nimbus in, the branches are too thick,” he continued obviously, his fists tightening and relaxing angrily by his side. 

His flying cloud not being useful had been a hard pill for Monkey to swallow.

“Sandy’s right,” Pigsy said, ignoring almost everything Monkey had said. “Something strange is going on. And apparently unlike you, I like my parts where they are. They’re nice. I’d even say handsome. The point is I’m attached to them. Remember that abandoned village two days back? The hut we stayed in had claw marks on the walls.” He shuddered. “I’d rather not see what made them.”

“Probably an alligator,” Monkey dismissed. “We haven’t run into anything supernatural since we crossed the ocean. I don’t even think they _have_ demons over here.”

“So we’re just supposed to be fine with the idea that, according to you, there’s supposedly giant alligators here that have learned how to climb up flat surfaces?” Pigsy scoffed. "Because I'll be honest. If an alligator like that exists, I don't want to meet it."

“Fine,” Monkey seethed, fingers drumming against his weapon. “Fine,” he repeated quietly to himself a moment later. “Meet us back at camp. Who cares.” 

Louder, he added “Let’s go, Tripitaka.”

Tripitaka couldn’t help the grudging smile that spread across her lips. Of course Monkey would assume she was going with him. Given the various adventures they had had over the last three years trying to locate the remaining heavenly scrolls, it seemed less of an presumption and more of an inevitable fact. 

After all, hadn’t she had been the one to brave the ice caves with Monkey two seasons ago, almost dying of hypothermia as a reward? Pigsy and Sandy had the good sense to stay in the warm cabin down the mountainside, telling them to wait until spring. But what else could she have done? There was no one else to look after Monkey once he made up his mind. He would have just gone without her and frozen alone in those winding cave.

Monkey was sometimes more stubborn than he was smart.

Not that he wasn’t intelligent. 

She had watched people be fooled by him enough over the years to know having a short attention span and a loud voice didn’t mean there wasn’t something more lurking underneath, waiting for the right opportunity to present itself. 

“I really wish you’d think about this more,” Sandy cautioned, giving Tripitaka a concerned look.

“It’ll be fine,” Tripitaka replied with what she hoped was a reassuring smile. “We’ll be back before you know it. Besides, this way I don’t have to hear Pigsy complain about his wet socks anymore.”

Sandy frowned, but said nothing further. She just motioning for Pigsy to follow her back the way they had come, eyeing the cypress roots that sprouted from the ground like knobby knees around the trail suspiciously.

Pigsy gave Tripitakas hand a reassuring squeeze as he passed her. “Yell if you need us, alright?”

“We’ll be fine. Stop scaring her,” Monkey snapped, shooting Pigsy a glare as he grabbed Tipitakas arm and started walking them both deeper into the swamp.

“We’ll see you suckers in a couple of hours,” Monkey called over his shoulder. “ _With_ the fourth scroll.”

“Don’t blame us when you fall into a mud puddle and drown,” Pigsy fired back, sending a quick grin Tripitakas way before he and Sandy rounded a bend in the trail and disappeared from sight.

\- - - 

After that they walked for a long time. Long enough that the sun started to dip along the horizon, casting tall shadows and making the already gloomy swamp seem harsher somehow in the slowly diminishing light.

Tripitaka pulled a water skin from her pack and sloshed a small amount over the short stubble of her hair. She shook the water out of her eyes and glanced at Monkey. “None of this looks familiar, does it?” she said with a sigh. “We should have listened to Sandy. She kept saying she wanted to talk to that old woman we met at the edge of the water basin more. Maybe she knows something.”

“We’re close,” Monkey declared, the self confidence in his voice at odds with the way he was rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, glancing between the two diverging before them.

“Uh huh,” Tripitaka muttered, unconvinced.

“I just need to remember… There was a big rock or something, right nex-” he cut off, looking at a small, pointed stone that was sticking straight up from the water. “Hm,” he said, circling slowly. “Yeah, that could be.”

Bending down, he felt around in the mud at its base. “Sunk,” he said with satisfaction, pulling the stone up a fraction. It made a gurgling noise as water rushed to fill the hole he had created. After a second he dropped what must have actually been a very large boulder back into the murky water with a splash. A small set of runes flashed up the rocks side, bright like lighting and almost as quick.

The hairs on the back of Tripitakas arms stood up.

“Did you see that?” she asked as Monkey started to move forward with purpose, whistling cheerfully and twirling Nyoi Bo between his fingers. When Monkey didn’t immediately answer she added “The air feels heavier than before.”

Monkey didn’t respond.

“Seriously, do you feel that?” Tripitaka asked again, rubbing her arms with her palms and frowning. “It’s not going away.”

Monkey moved further into the shadows.

“That’s not funny,” Tripitaka called after him, lifting her small legs higher so she could move forward in the silty water.

She could barely see Monkey now. 

She started to wade faster through the swamp, which was now waist-deep in parts, trying to catch up to him as the pit in her stomach grew.

“Slow down,” she yelled. Her voice echoed back to her, lapping and conjoining weirdly over the ripples she had created.

It barely looked like Monkey was walking. He seemed to glide through the water, legs unusually still, moving faster than any human could hope to pace.

Tripitaka was now waddling as fast as she dared in the treacherous mud and Monkey was still serenely moving out of her range of vision. 

Then there was a small pop in the distance and Monkey disappeared fully from view. 

And just like that Tripitaka finally knew what was going on. Not that it did her much good. 

Magic.

It took her a couple of moments to remember what to do. She stared dumbly at the place Monkey had vanished before she angrily scrubbed a hand across her eyes, dunked her head under the muddy water and bubbled out “SANDY!” as loud as she could.

She broke the surface of the swamp with a gasp and slowly crawled to the nearest cypress tree trunk. Then she leaned against it, crossed her legs, closed her eyes, and waited.

\- - - 

It felt like hours before Sandy zipped up, her figure waving in and out of blue lines of mist.

In reality, it had probably only been a few minutes.

“Finally,” Sandy puffed out, looking winded.

“Some kind of spell got Monkey,” Tripitaka said wearily before Sandy could say anything else. She braced her palms to her knees and stood. “Save the ‘I told you so’ for when we get him back.”

“Been trying to find you two for hours,” Sandy coughed. She took a large gulp of air before continuing in a ragged, but pleased voice. “Heard yelling and finally knew where to look.” 

She paused for a second, the satisfied expression draining off her face as she took in what Tripitaka had said. “What do you mean, a spell got -- oh no.”

“Whatever made you come looking can wait. Monkey’s in trouble,” Tripitaka reiterated as she pushed herself away from the tree behind her and started to slog forward.

After a small pause Sandy said “I don’t think it can.”

“Sandy, we don’t have time for this,” Tripitaka apologized, sounding more kind than she felt. “We have to go save Monkey. Again.”

“There’s witches in the swamp,” the water god said urgently, moving forward to block Tripitakas path. “Old ones. Poisoning the land, making the frogs hide. They’re changing things. Making them… strange. Bigger than they should be. Or smaller. Or with more teeth.”

“The woman before was trying to warn us. They found the scroll. They’re using it somehow. Don’t know enough to unlock its full power, but it’s a strong magical artifact all the same. She found our camp. Traveled all the way from the edge of the swamp, I think. I don’t know if I’d have been that brave.” 

Sandy paused and looked down. “They’ll have it protected. Enchanted. Don’t try and use force, she said.”

“The woman we met a couple of weeks back at the fishing village?” Tripitaka asked slowly. “Why didn’t she say so from the beginning?” 

“Don’t think she trusted us,” Sandy replied with a small shrug. “Not sure if I would either.”

“And now they have Monkey,” Tripitaka said with growing horror. “What do they want with him?”

“Dunno. Read it maybe?” Sandy shrugged.

“Everyone knows he can’t -- oh. Maybe only we know he can’t read.” 

“Or un stick it?” Sandy offered.

“Un stick… the scroll?” Tripitaka asked with trepidation.

“Apparently Monkey entrusted some old witch doctor whos-it to ward it with some sort of powerful protection spell. Back before. Can’t be moved, from what I gather.” Sandy looked far less concerned than Tripitaka felt.

“What happens when you try to take it?” Tripitaka asked.

Sandy grimaced, signifying nothing good.

“And of course Monkey didn’t mention any of this. Because why would he,” Tripitaka ground out, her face hardening. 

After she saved him, she was going to kill him.

“Right,” Tripitaka said after an uncomfortable silence. “You take that way. Shout if you see anything, you know. Mystical.” 

“Can do,” Sandy replied cheerfully before zipping off through the trees.

Tripitaka fished out a crooked walking stick from the muddy bottom and started quickly moving in the opposite direction, calling out Monkeys name.

**AFTER**

The next time Tripitaka opened her eyes she was wrapped in Pigsys spare blanket. She was back at camp next to a roaring fire, with Monkey sleeping beside her. Despite the heat, her insides felt clammy.

“What happened,” she coughed out, taking in the way Monkeys hair was spread around him like a halo. Her throat felt scratchy and raw.

“Sh,” Sandy said kindly, leaning over and offering her a cup of tea. “Took almost an hour to find you. Not good to inhale that much water.”

Tripitaka sipped at the warm liquid gratefully before putting it back in Sandys outstretched hand.

Her muscles felt stiff and uncooperative, like they had been used to the brink of exhaustion. Her eyes were tired but she looked into the coals anyway; watching as they shifted from black, to cherry red, to ash white and then back again.

She didn’t know what Monkey had done, tapping the metal ring, but she knew it couldn’t be good. Her head pounded with each soft hiss and crack the fire made. Something was wrong. She just couldn’t quite figure out what yet.

“Monkey’s actually lighter than he looks,” Sandy remarked in the comfortable silence.

Tripitaka boggled at her for a second, trying to imagine how it must have looked to Pigsy when Sandy returned to camp with both Tripitaka and Monkey slung over her shoulders. Probably like had been carrying two big sacks of potatoes.

“Well how do you think the two of you got here?” Sandy asked reasonably. “Being a god does come with some advantages, after all.”

Pigsy grinned down at the patch he was sewing. 

Tripitaka assumed Sandy had left the other God behind when trying to locate Monkey because he would have never been able to keep up with the breakneck pace she had used to zip through the waterway. Super strength and the means to call down lighting had many uses, but helping to find your way through a muggy swamp wasn’t one of them. Sandys affinity towards all things wet and her ability to move like smoke through the air had simply been much more practical in this particular set of circumstances.

Tripitaka looked over to the chest that was slowly rising and falling next to her.

“Is Monkey…” Tripitaka trailed off.

“Passed the hell out. We’re not sure exactly what knocked you both over, but it looks like it took some serious energy from him,” Pigsy offered from across the fire, his fingers moving quickly along the weave of the shirt he was repairing.

Tripitaka smiled over at him. 

“Glad to see you two back in one piece,” he continued with a grin of his own.

“Me too,” Tripitaka said softly, burrowing further into the blanket that was wrapped around her. “Me too.”

After that, all three of them fell into an easy silence. Happy to be together and whole. 

Pigsy ended up taking another blanket from his oversized pack and laying down by the opposite side of the fire, making a shallow indent in the dirt to rest in before cocooning himself for the night. 

Tripitaka had always been jealous at his ability to sleep anywhere he laid down.

Sandy stayed up longer. She sprawled herself out on a fat log, cheerfully poking at the flames with a stick and watching the little glints of ash she created dance up towards the sky. Tripitaka wanted to ask what she was thinking, but it was cozy in the shifting light and opening her mouth felt like it would have taken an extraordinary amount of effort.

Despite the peacefulness of the campsite the wrongness under Tripitakas skin stayed, even as her mind started to grow dull with sleep. It was almost like an itch; making her want to shift, move, go somewhere, be someone else. Kneading her arms under the blanket didn’t help. Rolling on her side did nothing. She could still feel it, like an army of ants marching along her nerves. But she had two legs and two arms and two good eyes, so all things considered, she really didn’t have much to complain about. 

Whatever the lingering side effects she had from the spell Monkey had inadvertently tampered with, they clearly couldn’t be too bad. 

They were both still here.

Before she completely drifted off to sleep, she turned over to look at Monkey. 

It was reassuring, seeing him lying there. Asleep and potentially ensorcelled, he was still undeniably himself. His crown was resting comfortably above his forehead, and he still had the same long hair and dark eyelashes. He was sleeping in the same position he always did. Spread out as far as he would go. 

As she watched, she noticed he had kicked off almost all of the covers Pigsy had carefully placed over him and his forehead was beaded with sweat. Every couple of minutes he would jerk and shift, as if he was having a bad dream. 

Tripitaka reached over to gently brush his hair away from where it was caught at the corner of his mouth and her skin sung when it made contact with his. All of her muscles relaxed. There was a small buzz, like an electric shock that traveled up her arm. Something slotted into place she hadn’t known was missing.

She pulled her arm back to her chest as if she had been stung. She scooted as far away from him as she could in the confines of her blanket, her muscles tightening again.

If Sandy had noticed her movements, she didn’t say anything.

Leftover discharge from the clearing, Tripitaka reassured herself. It didn’t mean anything.

Even so, she didn’t try touching Monkey again.

\- - - 

Tripitaka didn’t want to wake up the next morning. There was something pressed snugly against her side, radiating heat and gentle pressure. She knew without being fully conscious that she was safe. That nothing could harm her. Not even the insistent rays of the sun that were beating down on her eyelids.

Eventually, the thing beside Tripitaka shifted and she grudgingly cracked open her eyes, only to find that a large portion of her vision was blocked by the top of Monkeys head. He had apparently abandoned his own covers completely and was twined around her ribs like a vine, sharing her body heat. Not that he needed it in the humid air of the swamp.

Monkeys face was nestled into the crook of her neck, with his nose gently brushing the place where her pulse moved up and down. His hair had trailed down over his shoulder and onto her collarbone in loose waves, covering both of them in a thin silky curtain. The places their bodies met were damp with sweat.

Tripitaka sighed and slowly started to extract herself.

It was excruciating sometimes, liking someone who was both as oblivious and cuddly in their sleep as Monkey. Not that he would admit to either.

Oh well, she thought, wincing as she gently lifted his arm so she could slide out from underneath it. Nothing she wasn’t used to.

The moment their skin stopped touching, her bones started to ache.

That, however, was new.

And not particularly pleasant.

Tripitaka looked around the camp, expecting to find breakfast bubbling slowly over a low fire with Sandy and Pigsy arguing over how much spice to add, like they did almost every morning.

Instead, she saw a heap of long dead ash. Aside from Monkeys even breathing, it was completely silent. 

She had no idea where the other two gods went or what time it was. Judging by the sun in the sky, later than she would have hoped.

They probably decided to scout ahead, she thought uneasily. 

The swamp around them had a sinister edge to it now. The shadows the deep cypress thickets made seemed threatening where they had once been only mysterious. They felt like a warning sign. Their scraggly branches almost seemed to whisper, 'you are not welcome here' as they moved with the breeze.There were no birds calling in the trees, and the insects from the previous day seemed to be hiding.

“Monkey,” she finally said, resolutely turning her back on the trees and resolving not to scare herself further. “Wake up.” 

He made an unintelligible sound before rolling over to squish his face against the blanket and putting his arms over his head, clearly trying to block out her voice.

Tripitaka poked him sharply in the rib with a short stick she found lying on the ground beside her blanket roll.

After a moment Monkey flopped over and rubbed a closed fist over his eyes. “Wuzzit,” he mumbled groggily when Tripitaka needled his side again, shifting so he could give her an accusing glare for waking him.

“What do you remember about yesterday?” Tripitaka asked unsympathetically. 

Monkeys eyes focused on her face, shifting slowly from bleary to alert. Tripitaka could see his brain working.”I found the scroll. I was going to open it and then…. Nothing.”

He paused, thinking. “You were trying to stop me, weren’t you?” he said slowly. “I could hear your voice. I thought I was imagining it.”

“You weren’t,” she stated simply.

“Why?” he asked immediately, his tone curious rather than accusatory.

“Apparently, you decided it was a good idea to booby trap it,” Tripitaka replied.

Monkey sat still for a very long time. “Huh,” he finally said. “I did, didn’t I.”

If Tripitaka could have strangled him, she would have.

“...Do you remember exactly what you told the Witch Doctor to do?” she asked with forced patience.

“....I think the exact phrase was ‘use your imagination’,” Monkey admitted glumly. 

Suddenly he brightened. “Hey, wait a minute. I touched the protection spell and we’re fine. Nothing happened!” He chuckled to himself. “Little man must not have been a very good witch after all.”

Tripitaka nodded uneasily, thinking back to the sounds the wind had made and the way her bones still ached. 

Well, Monkey seemed to be unaffected at least. 

“Hey, what happened to Sandy and Pigsy?” Monkey asked as he sat up, noticing they were alone for the first time.

For someone as quick witted as Monkey was, he could be surprisingly unobservant.

\- - - 

Tripitaka and Monkey spent the next forty minutes as a pair, searching the area around the campsite for the direction the two gods had started in and finding nothing. If it wasn’t for Pigsys pack still lying sideways on the ground, it would have almost seemed like they had never been there at all.

Monkey kept trying to split up to cover more ground, but after Tripitaka testily replied that the last time he had gone off on his own they had both ended up unconscious he stopped arguing.

“This is pointless,” Monkey declared after their fifth ever-wider circle of the campsite. “They’ll come back eventually.”

Tripitaka was too tired to disagree. She felt heavy and slow, like the ground was pressing up against the bottoms of her feet. Or as if she was being forced back down to it by some invisible force.

Monkey gave her a concerned look when she just nodded and went to go sit on a nearby tree stump.

“Actually, why don’t you stay here while I go for one last pass. Maybe we missed something,” he said, coming over to press a palm to her shoulder in what she assumed was reassurance.

Even through her shirt, Tripitaka could feel the heat of his touch like a brand. It seared into her, sinking into her muscles and radiating slowly outward, causing an almost euphoric sense of peace in its wake.

She nodded again, her mouth suddenly dry. 

When his hand moved away, she had to physically stop herself from following it backward. She couldn’t stop the small grunt of pain that pushed it’s way past her lips as her body tightened back in on itself.

Monkey shot her a confused look.

She waved a hand at him, not trusting her voice.

Shrugging, he turned and headed towards a break in the trees around them. 

As Monkey moved further and further away, something seemed to split and widen inside Tripitaka. Her fingernails bit into the soft wood of the tree stump, and she could feel her forehead break out in a cold sweat. She had to lock her legs against the ground to keep herself from rushing after him. It felt like there was a giant boulder at her back, pressing her relentlessly forward. Her skin started to burn, and even with her knees locked her feet slid in the soft mud, as if they were being pulled forward. 

It was if there was an invisible string between them, pulled taunt.

“Wait,” she called, her voice betraying her when it felt like her bones had started to compress in on themselves. She stood up quickly, pretending her legs weren’t shaking. “I’m coming.”

After that, Tripitaka made sure Monkey wasn’t more than three feet away from her at all times.

She tested the boundary between them slowly as they walked through the swamp, letting Monkey set the pace and purposefully lagging behind his longer steps until her teeth were gritted in pain and her palms were bloody.

Monkey never seemed to notice.

Once, when she fell behind as far she dared, she thought she might have seen him flinch. But then he was angrily smacking his arm and muttering how it was sacreligious for bugs to taste God flesh and Tripitaka knew she was the only one that the spell had affected.

She couldn’t tell if she wanted to laugh or cry.

Whatever the Witch Doctors spells original intention, the result of the spell was clear. 

She was bound to Monkey as surely as there was a sun in the sky, and he had no idea.

\- - - 

Monkey and Tripitakas long search into the swamp was fruitless. They saw nothing besides trees, placid water and overgrown vegetation.

To make matters worse, Pigsy and Sandy didn’t return that night. Or the next morning. 

With each passing of the sun Tripitaka grew increasingly worried. She could tell Monkey was too, even if he refused to admit it.

Tripitaka had taken Pigsys spilled pack and gently placed it back beside his small sleeping space the first night their friends had been missing. 

There was nothing left of Sandys to return.

Tripitaka and Monkey had sat silently by the fire that night, their ears perking up at every sound, waiting for their friends to come stumbling back into the warm glow of the campsite. When they didn’t, Monkey said it didn’t mean anything but Tripitaka could see the ways his eyes scanned the darkness of the swamp around them and how Nyoi Bo was resting ready between his fingers, instead of its customary place on the top of his head.

“Do you think the witches got them somehow?” Tripitaka finally asked during their next midday meal, her voice tight. She had spent much of the first days walk through the swampland telling Monkey what she knew. At the time he had laughed off her concerns, asking how powerful this supposed coven of evildoers could be if Sandy had been the one to break them out of whatever had made them lose consciousness. 

Monkey thought about her question for a moment before asking what the witches could possibly want with them in an unconcerned voice. And besides that, why would they only have taken the two of them when he and Tripitaka had been sleeping across from them. 

His questions were reasonable ones, but they did nothing to ease Tripitakas fear. 

Added to her growing concern with each passing hour was the annoying prickle simmering under her skin anytime Monkey’s movements throughout the camp put too much distance between them.

Tripitaka didn’t know why she was so resistant to telling him what the spell had done. The sooner she did, the sooner they could start looking for a way to nullify it.

In the early light of the third morning without their friends Tripitaka could admit to herself that it was probably because she was embarrassed. At being attached to him like this. She already felt like she didn’t have control over herself around him with the stupid unrequited crush she couldn’t seem to shake. The idea of admitting out loud that standing more than three feet away from Monkey caused her physical pain made her want to crawl into a hole and die.

It was awful, sitting there and doing nothing while her friends were potentially in danger. And when she wasn’t imagining Sandy and Pigsy being slowly cooked alive in a bubbling cauldron (all she knew about witches was from the old children's stories the Scholar had read to her in her when she was still small and and scared of what waited outside of her window at night), she was scratching at her arms, trying to remove the feeling of invisible ants crawling across her skin.

So of course when Monkey stood up resolutely later that day and said “we’ve waited for long enough,” she agreed.

“One of us has to stay here,” Monkey reasoned as he started shoving roots into the small travel pack Tripitaka had knitted him months ago. “In case they come back.”

Tripitaka bit the inside of her lip, unable to think of a reason they shouldn’t separate.

“No offense, but you haven’t looked so good since we found the scroll,” Monkey added with an unimpressed glance. “I’ll be the one walking.”

Tripitaka was silent, her mind racing.

“If I don’t see anything within two days, I’ll turn around and we’ll try and find the witches camp together,” Monkey continued. “If I’m not back here on the fourth morning, go the way we came in. Maybe one of the villagers will be willing to give you information about where the coven is located.”

“Why don’t we both go back to the fishing village?” Tripitaka asked in a small voice.

“You know why,” Monkey replied, shooting her a puzzled look. “That’s six days of travel without the Nimbus and they’ve already been missing for three.”

“You’re right,” she whispered finally, knowing she was defeated.

“Hey,” Monkey said, misunderstanding her tone completely. “It’s going to be fine. It’s me we’re talking about after all. I bet it takes less than twenty-four hours to find them.” Monkey was nothing if not confident.

Tripitaka forced her lips to say “I’m sure it will,” around the ball of dread in her stomach.

Monkey leaned over from where he was sitting across from her and gave her shoulder an awkward pat, quick enough that Tripitaka didn’t have time to lean out of his way like she had been doing since she realized exactly how much his touch affected her.

Her muscles seared as his hand fell back to his side.

Tell him, she repeated to herself. He’ll think it’s funny. Just tell him.

But her mouth wouldn’t open.

Monkey stood, gave her a look she couldn’t quite categorize and seemed to take a minute to steel himself before he started turned and started to make his way towards the tree line that surrounded their camp.

“Monkey,” Tripitaka finally said as he moved, jolting up and taking a step toward him. She found she couldn’t get the rest of the words out. 

Monkey turned to give her a questioning look and she shot him a feeble smile in return. “Be safe,” she finished weakly.

He nodded once, unusually serious, before turning around and continuing forward.

Tripitaka locked her knees and fisted her palms against her sides. ‘Maybe it won’t be as bad as before,’ she thought. ‘Maybe if I power through it he’ll eventually be far away enough that I won’t feel anything.’

When he was about four feet away, Tripitakas vision started to blur and her hands shook uncontrollably. At five feet, she heard a snap and one of her legs buckled. She had closed her eyes against the pain, but she didn’t need them to feel Monkey move further and further away. It was like a rusty knife twisting her insides with each step. It only took a couple more paces before her vision went black and she dropped like a stone. 

The last thing she remembered was the splash of her body hitting water and blessed relief as Monkey finally seemed to be coming back.

\- - - 

Tripitaka opened her eyes to Monkeys concerned face resting just above hers and couldn’t help the few treacherous tears that leaked out, making slow trails down her cheeks. She wasn’t sure if she crying because she was sad or angry.

She couldn’t stand feeling helpless, and this seemed like the final nail in the coffin of the long list of ways ways she no longer have control over her own body.

“What happened?” Monkey asked, his face wrinkled with worry. 

Tripitaka shook her head, wanting to say she was fine, but unable to get the words out.

She watched with a weird combination of dread and longing as Monkey reached down with an extended thumb to brush away the water that was still sliding out of the corner of her eyes. 

He left his palm there, framing her face. She hated how despite her all of her attempts to keep them separated, she still craved his touch.

This is going to be worse than I thought, Tripitaka decided with a small shudder as she closed her eyes, calm forcing its way into her body like a steady stream, and opened her mouth to finally speak.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta read by the lovely [Walutahanga](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Walutahanga).
> 
> As always, mistakes are my own and please point out any you find. Comments and critiques are appreciated!
> 
> If you would like to send me more fic ideas, talk in depth about the show in general please shoot me a message over on my newly set up [writing tumblr](https://cassieswritingblog.tumblr.com/)!


	2. Chapter 2

“I’m going to find that witch doctor and kill him,” Monkey spit out, pacing angrily back and forth through the marshy grass that carpeted their small campsite.

“I’m pretty sure you missed the boat on that one,” Tripitaka said wearily from her log beside the long dead fire. “By about five hundred years.”

“I can’t believe he had the audacity to bind me. _Me!_ I’m the one who told him to set the stupid spell, clearly I should have been exempt,” Monkey continued, his eyebrows making a furious line against his forehead as he jabbed at the air for emphasis.

Tripitaka crossed her arms against her chest and glumly looked up at the sky, wholeheartedly regretting not making up some other reason for passing out.

Monkey had been like this for the last hour.

“We’re finding those old hags and they’re undoing this,” Monkey glowered, Nyoi Bo twisting threateningly through the fingers of his left hand. “Or I’ll make them wish they had.”

“We were _already_ planning on find the witches,” Tripitaka reasoned, rubbing her temples and feeling even more tired than before, if that was possible. “You know, for the whole ‘they probably kidnapped Pigsy and Sandy’ thing.”

“They’re going to rue the day they ever messed with the Monkey King,” Monkey muttered angrily to himself, acting as if Tripitaka hadn’t spoken.

Tripitaka sighed and hunched down further on her log.

When Monkey had tried to leave the campsite without her and Tripitaka fainted from the strain of her body being pulled in two directions, she knew she had to explain what was going on. They needed to find a way to break the spell. She couldn’t keep on pretending she wasn’t in physical pain any time Monkey moved more than two feet away from her. And that meant Monkey knowing there was a spell in the first place.

She wasn’t entirely sure how she had wanted their conversation about it to go, but she knew it wasn’t like this.

“I can’t believe I actually thought I was going crazy,” Monkey continued to speak from across the clearing, oblivious to Tripitakas discomfort. He gestured incredulously at his chest, as if to emphasize how irrational the thought was.

“What?” Tripitaka asked, snapping back into focus at his words, her mind turning rapidly. “The spell effected you too?”

“Well obviously,” Monkey huffed, crossing his arms and sticking his chin in the air like he did when he didn’t want to discuss something further.

“...You mean this whole time you thought, what, ‘this is normal’ and decided to just suffer through it?” Tripitaka asked, dumbfounded.

“Well I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say ‘suffer’,” Monkey replied haughtily. “I have a strong constitution.” He paused to take in her hunched form with a small frown before turning back to his pacing. 

“I don’t think the spell is as powerful for me,” he continued after a moment of silence, a hint of sympathy creeping into his voice. 

It set Tripitakas teeth on edge.

“You mean to say, the last four days, you’ve just been sitting on this and you didn’t say _anything_?” Tripitaka ground out slowly through a clenched jaw.

“You didn’t either!” Monkey shot back heatedly.

_Touché_ ,Tripitaka thought with a wince.

“Which, by the way... why not?” Monkey asked with fake nonchalance, tilting his chin and looking down through his nose at her.

“Well why didn’t you?” Tripitaka retorted defensively.

Monkey thought for a moment before he casually flopped his hand in the air as if to void both questions and continued back along the short indent he had worn into the ground of their campsite. “It doesn’t matter now. We need to focus on figuring out how to undo it.”

Tripitaka nodded, biting her lip.

“You said the spell didn’t seem to affect you the same way as me,” Tripitaka asked quietly into the muggy swamp air. “What did you mean?”

Monkey looked at her out of one eye before shrugging. “I actually thought I was just sleeping bad or something,” he finally admitted into the tense silence. He almost immediately raised his hands up at the glare she shot him. “I thought my muscles were tense or something, alright? How was I supposed to know?”

Tripitaka clenched her fists and took a slow breath instead of listing out all the reasons that yes, actually, Monkey was supposed to know exactly what had happened considering he was the one that caused the spell in the first place.

“You were the one that touched it. So of course I’m the one that winds up with the side effects,” she finally muttered under her breath, her anger leaving her body in a slow wave.

Monkey found he had no reply to the glum inevitability that saturated her voice.

\- - - 

Monkey and Tripitaka wasted no time leaving the campsite this time around. There were no goodbyes to be had and their bags were already packed.

The only thing that held them up was the minute it took Tripitaka to pin a quick note addressed to Sandy and Pigsy on the front of Pigsys abandoned pack, explaining that she and Monkey had gone looking for them and to not to leave again under any circumstances if they managed to find their way back to camp.

Then the human and god set off towards the only place it made sense to start searching - where they had been cursed in the first place.

Tripitaka looked back one last time before a curve in their makeshift trail took their small campsite out of view. She shivered at the long shadows that were in the process of swallowing the small clearing.

After about twenty minutes Monkey stuck out his hand behind him and waved it impatiently, as if Tripitaka should know what to do with it. When she did nothing besides wrinkle her eyebrows at him, he huffed and grabbed the clenched palm that rested at her side. When she startled and tried to pull away he simply gripped her hand tighter, forcing her fingers open so he could interlink them with his own. When he stuck out his chin and said they weren’t getting separated again Tripitaka vividly remembered the loud pop the air had made as he disappeared and knew she couldn’t argue, even if it was suddenly harder to think about where to step along the uneven ground of the swamp. It felt like there was electricity flashing up and down her arm.

After a couple of hours, Tripitaka hardly noticed that their fingers were wound together at all.

She wasn’t conscious of how their steps sank into an easy rhythm, Monkeys gait slowing slightly and hers speeding up so they moved forward in unison, or the way they had unconsciously shifted closer and closer together as they were walking, as if even the couple of inches that had separated their elbows and knees had been too much.

Or how she finally felt truly relaxed for the first time in days, even when they saw the occasional set of yellow eyes peering at them from the water line on either side.

If she had, maybe she would have been more concerned by the gentle brushing of their shoulders, or the way Monkey seemed to almost curl into her side when they stopped to swallow down a few greedy mouthfuls of water from the canteen they shared. Something he would have no problem doing when he was asleep, but normally never admit to while he was conscious.

But she didn’t. She was lost in the steady motion of one foot falling after another, trusting Monkey to lead the way.

\- - - 

They found the clearing quickly.

Quicker than it had taken Tripitaka the first time anyway. 

Finding it turned out to be a disappointment though.

No matter how Monkey paced, or the various herbs Tripitaka tried from her pack, the small metal ring remained lifeless and dull. There was no longer a scroll inside. Monkey triggering the spell had clearly removed whatever enchantment kept it protected. The only thing remaining to show they had found the right spot was the the patch of bare earth enclosed by a metal circle, now littered with a scattering of dead leaves and a few sprout of new growth.

Despite the obvious conclusion, it was well into dusk before Tripitaka admitted to herself they were at a dead end. She sat down with a small thump on the edge of the ring, ignoring the way the metal cut into the back of her thighs. 

“What now?” she asked into the muggy air. 

Tripitaka looked up at the outline of a smooth expanse of skin that had angled itself towards her when her knees gave out. There was barely enough illumination from the moon cutting through the trees to make out individual features, but Tripitaka saw the distinctive tick of Monkeys jaw and knew he had no answers to give.

Instead of voicing false platitudes, Monkey plopped down next to her. 

Her shoulder brushed the fabric of his shirt and she watched Monkeys face tilt up, looking through the twisted cypress branches that circled them like a cage to the small scattering of stars above. 

“I don’t know,” he admitted into the silence. 

Tripitaka moved her eyes away from the way Monkeys cheekbones caught the light and tried to follow his gaze out into the night. 

It was easy to feel small sometimes, when she remembered the company she kept. She was surrounded by gods and demons, people who it seemed like had been alive when even the stars were young, and here she was, trying to hold her own. It was easy to question her usefulness in the dark, when shadows were long. But then she would remember Monkey tripping over his own feet and landing in an undignified lump, or the way Pigsy unashamedly slurped his noodles and always complained that the broth was too hot. And she would be reminded all at once, despite everything, how _human_ her friends were. 

Looking out into the darkness, Tripitaka felt smaller than she had in a long time.

“What if we can’t fix this?” she finally asked.

Monkey said nothing at first. He just pulled her body closer to his and wrapped a large warm hand around the back of her neck. Tripitaka sighed and leaned into his side. Each of his fingers felt like a band against her skin. Small currents pulsed in each place they met.

“You’d get used to having to pee around me eventually,” Monkey stated into the comfortable silence, his voice reassuring.

Tripitaka let out a surprised bark of laughter and punched him in the ribs.

“Seriously,” she said. “What if we’re stuck together like this forever because of your dumb spell.”

“I’ll hum,” Monkey decided. “To make it easier.” He pinched her forearm. “Also: not my spell.”

“It’s at least half your spell,” Tripitaka grumbled, unable completely get rid of the fond smile that split her face.

“It’s perfect,” Monkey continued, acting as if Tripitaka hadn’t spoken. “That way I won’t be able to hear you going.”

Tripitaka shook her head and said nothing further. Looking back out into the dark she started to grow somber once again.

First she focused on the trailing moss, barely visible through the moonlit branches. Then she noticed the set of yellow eyes that shifted slowly in the tree across from them. Tripitaka shivered, pulling herself closer to Monkey.

“It’s not the worst thing that could happen,” Monkey said into the silence, his body unusually still. 

Tripitaka turned and gave him an unconvinced look.

“You could be attached to Pigsy,” Monkey continued flippantly.

“I like Pigsy,” Tripitaka replied, a little indignant.

“You don’t like me?” Monkey said after an uncomfortable pause, his voice just a tad too casual.

“That’s different,” Tripitaka said, shifting her shoulder to create a small pocket of space between them after a silence that stretched just long enough to be awkward.

“Why?” Monkey asked, studiously not looking at her.

Tripitaka could feel something breaking. There was no way to answer his question without giving something away. 

It was right about then that a foul smelling burlap sack was pulled tightly over Tripitakas face, and a cord looped around her neck, cutting off her airflow. From the angry yell across from her, she assumed something similar had happened to Monkey. It was almost a relief, when the sharp pain of a blunt object hit the back of her skull.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Sorry it's taken me so incredibly long to get the second chapter out. Thanks for reading!
> 
> As always, mistakes are my own. Please point out any you find. Comments and critiques are appreciated!
> 
> If you would like to send me more fic ideas, talk in depth about the show in general please shoot me a message over on my [writing tumblr](https://cassieswritingblog.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
